The Chastity Belt Returns

April 30, 2008

Chastity belts are making a revival. According to theLA Times, massage parlors in Batu, a tiny resort town in the east of Indonesia, arerequiring their female staff to wear padlocks across the zippers of theiruniform whilst they work. This drastic and archaic measure is in response to anincreasing trend of customers propositioning sex.

Franky Setiawan, the owner of Doghado Massage Parlor, firstcame up with the idea after his employees were “bombarded” with requests forsex, a situation that became worse after the local authorities closed down the town’sbrothels. Seitawan said “We had a hard time rejecting this kind of clientbecause they try over and over and over again, persuading our workers withtheir dangerously sweet words."

Setiawan, a clothing designer before entering the massage business,designed the uniforms himself. His chastity belts are not clunky, heavy oruncomfortable likes the ones of old. Rather he went for a minimalistic style,settling on “back pants that zip up at the side, where a padlock is slippedthrough two cloth loops and snapped shut each time a masseuse meets a client.”

According to the LA Times:

When a customer arrives for a massage, given in a private room behind a curtain,the "cashier calls one masseuse, asks her to prepare things and locks herpants," Setiawan said. "Because the masseuse knows the drill, sheusually pees before that. And when the client is done, the masseuse comes tothe cashier, and the cashier opens the padlock." Once in a while, Setiawansaid, he checks to make sure no one lifts the keys to cut copies.

Setiawan’s workers find the uniform comfortable, un-intrusiveand treat it as part of the job. Others find the use of the new fangledchastity belt offensive. Meutia FardiaHatta Swasono, the Indonesian Minister for women’s empowerment believes: "It isnot the right way to prevent promiscuity. It insults women as if they are theones in the wrong".

The trend is catching on with four other massage parlorsin Batu agreeing to start dressing their staff in similar outfits.